


Cozen

by Rionarch



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Disney References, Gen, Multi, Neverland, Parent-Child Relationship, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-23
Updated: 2014-05-13
Packaged: 2017-12-30 05:24:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1014642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rionarch/pseuds/Rionarch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pan makes sure Henry would never want to leave the island, even if that means making Emma and Baelfire into his own Lost Boys.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Also contains elements of: Swan Thief, Swan Queen, Captain Swan, Lost Swan, Captain Charming, Fairy Queen, Outlaw Queen and a dozen other combinations of great chemistry. If you feel that any warnings should be added feel free to tell me.

Charming grabbed Henry under his arm some more as they made their way underneath the low hanging braches, the poison in his side not making things much easier. Even though his sword was at the ready he wasn’t doing much more with it besides batting the braches away. Luckily they seemed to have the fewest Lost Boys following them.

“Where are we going?” Henry was still a little knocked out from whatever song Pan had been playing by the campfire just as they started towards the long weeds surrounding Tinkerbell’s shack.

“We’re getting you some where safe, Henry, then getting you off the island.” Snow’s arrows made a long hummed fwoop sound as they struck into another lost boy that feel behind them. In a much more effective move, he could also see the tops of Regina’s fire from the bushes. Henry was looking slightly less dazed now, but still not quite there.

“But what about Emma and Neal.”  They’d all gone separate ways to divide the lost boys up and hopefully set Pan off the wrong trail. Tinkerbell had somehow made her hut resilient to the lost boys and it was their best bet for safety right then.

“Don’t worry about them right now. We’re going to make sure you’re okay.” Neal, once they ran into him again, mentioned Pan’s piping and how he was drawing Henry in. It was a risk but they took him and ran.

“No, that’s not right we can’t leave Emma and Neal behind!”  He had bags down his eyes, even visible from the moonlight. Charming grunted throwing the boy over his shoulder  and up the ladder.

“David, you don’t get it. Pan’s going to do something really bad and we can’t just leave them alone on the island.” Henry was still putting up a fight with staying awake. Charming put him down on Tinkerbell’s bed just moments before Snow and Regina made their way up, more than a little scuffed up. Snow’s sleeve and part of her bow was singed.

“Is Henry okay?”  The boy was already asleep.

“He’s really concerned about what Pan’s going to do to us. Even with Neal’s stories I can’t imagine what this must have been like for him…” Regina frowned and brushed some of the sweaty bangs away from Henry’s face. They were already growing too long.

“There is probably a part of him that had fun with it…to be honest. Even if you’re running from something, being around people and dancing like no one cares can be breath taking.”  Snow sat down next to Charming and pecked at his mouth when he smiled. She, too, had some fun accounted for in forests.

“That’s real assuring, Snow. My son is a fledgling feral boy.” Charming just shook his head. Regina was pacing around the floor waiting for someone to incarnate again. The purse of her lips proved she wasn’t happy about much of anything.

“Regina, would you like to take the first watch over Henry while we wait for the others to get back?” She nodded and sat down, watching the door. From their spot on the floor, Snow couldn’t help but get a last word in,

“You know Regina, we make a pretty good team sometimes. “  Charming couldn’t hear what Regina might have said, falling into a restless sleep with the poison still throbbing at his side.

…

The air was starting to burn her lungs and stretching out her muscles to the point of feeling like jelly but Emma couldn’t afford to slow down for one second, especially not with the sack of sand and Henry’s clothes being cradled in her arms. More than a couple of times she had tripped over  and only stayed up because Neal pushed her on.

“Kinda funny, isn’t it Emma.” Neal wasn’t any better off behind her, kicked this down to slow whoever was following them. So far none of the Lost Boys tried to attack. It made her worried that they would have been able to find Henry and David so easily, but there was definitely something behind them.

“You think this is funny?!” She’d punched him once for dying, and then kicked him for being alive after everything that he had done to her. Her legs finally gave out and sent Emma flying onto the sand near where they had started to shore, Hook’s ship still in harbor.  Some sand went in her mouth with how hard she was inhaling, sweat blinding her for a few seconds. Neal stood up next to her.

“Look at us. Just everything around here. We spent years running from people, the police, and now we’re running from _Lost Boys_ on Neverland, into Tinkerbell’s house. Emma, you’ve got to laugh with me at some point.” The sand Henry stayed on the ground and she felt like she was already a hundred pounds lighter than before.

“That’s just it Neal, _we_ never ran. Not when it counted.” There were better time to do this but the words poured out of her mouth before she could stop them.

“I remember you and I running from hotel owners on more than one occasion. A lot of that I remember, actually. I did something wrong to you and I can own up to that but don’t go around pretending that we weren’t all the other had.”  Emma didn’t move to get up and Neal sat down next to her with a huff and sigh.

“You know, I almost said the words to my dad. ‘Dad, I’ll make a deal with you’, but not even the Dark One can fix us.” The sun was starting to reach past its zenith. She’d suggested that time for taking Henry. Boy’s staying up late never really wanted to see the sunlight hours-hell, even as an adult Neal didn’t want to. They stood up and Emma could barely look at him.

“God, Neal. You don’t even know what you did. You know how my parents met; how _Snow White_  and _Prince Charming_ fell in love? Rumpelstiltskin thought they were so in love with each other that he was able to bottle pure love from it. Pure love!” Emma shoved at him, angry again.

 

“I heard the stories! Baelfire ran away! Yeah, he let go on you. Boo hoo, poor Neal. Your father gave up his humanity so you would be okay. He created a curse so he could find you, he would have given anything to have you back. I was left in a tree, Neal! My parents left me, August left me,  my foster family _left me_ , and you! You left me with absolutely no where to go.” Neal’s face looked a little broken.

A thump landed in the sand next to them.

“Aren’t you two a couple of still lonely kids. Baelfire, you should be real proud of Emma. She figured out she was an orphan long before you did.” Emma swallowed. The last few times she had run into Pan there wasn’t at the moment risk. Her heart was in her throat.

“Pan, you can’t take my son. Let him, Emma, and our families off the island.” Neal stepped in front of her. Pan smiled at them both.

“I went about it all wrong with Henry. Thought if I just showed him what kind of a good times we boys could have he’d want to stay. I guess he still needs you two though. He thinks down to his very strong heart that you’re coming for him. Well I’m not going to be the one to break the heart of the truest believer, am I?” Like a flash, Pan grabbed them by the throats and floated them above the water. No matter how then struggled they couldn’t get out of the grip.

“So let me just say, personally, welcome back to the island, Baelfire. And Emma, you’re our first Lost Girl!” Pan dropped them into the water.

Emma blanked out, for a minute, before she felt the water sting into her eyes. There was someone else next to her, failing around and making a general mess of themselves, tangled up in some kind of long-ass coat. She grabbed him by the shoulder, and started pulling to where the sand was. She felt exhausted somehow from just the few strokes and laid back in the shallow tide, waves coming as high as her back and the throat of the boy next to her.

“What the fuck is this place?” Emma sat up and looked at the boy next to her, dark brown curls and an honest to god cloak. The plants weren’t anything like the evergreens of Vermont. She couldn’t remember how she got there.

Because in Emma’s fourteen years of life, she had never seen a real beach before.

…

“Tinkerbell, any sign of them?” He and Tinkerbell were walking closer at a sedate pace towards her home. The lost boys had mostly taken to chasing them; after all, Tinkerbell had been something of a friend to them. They had loads of fun fighting with himself whenever they met and the stakes weren’t as high. Then, suddenly, the boy seemed to stop following and dispersed. Never a good sign.

“Not one.  I’m not sure if I like all the risks involved with this plan.” Tink hadn’t exactly thrown herself into saving Henry, for what he could understand. You lived in Neverland and some jagged lines get drawn in the sand. Night was falling quickly. Since they had been the most familiar with the island they agreed to be the last to head back to Tink’s safe haven.

“Sometimes the lack of plan is worth it. Plans never really did you any good did they.” He had plans once or then.  And,  “curious thought if it’ll make you feel any better, Regina’s curse left the other fairies without magic either.  Even the Blue Fairy is as powerless as a petal in that world.” Tink smirked at him as they came up to the hidden planks for stairs.

“It does make me feel better.” She knocked on the door to her own house. The wood slipped away and Snow’s arrow was sticking centimeters from her face. Tinkerbell stared it down while he rolled his eyes. He’d been hoping Emma would be around by now.

“It’s just us, mate!” Distantly he heard Charming calling out about something while they scrambled up.

“Don’t know what you lot were complaining about not having room up here. We seem to be doing just fine.” They shut the door again and Tinkerbell went over to see Henry for their first meeting. The kid to her was Regina’s. Thank god the poor boy was sleeping.

“Emma hasn’t gotten back. Neither has Neal.” Snow looked straight at him not daring to mention what that might mean. Hook felt his stomach clench shut at that thought.  For a moment, one shining moment on Neverland everything had been fine again.

“What do we do now?” Regina looked pissed and at everyone in the room. It seems that they walked into a conversation that had happened several times. Snow gritted her teeth at the other woman.

“We are _not_ leaving Emma and Neal behind.” Tinkerbell was started enough to drop the lantern she was holding.

“Regina!” Shrugging, the Queen look another look out of the window they bolted shut for the night. Tinkerbell had said her defenses were commendable but not absolute.

“Pan wants Henry, we’ve got him. Those two have a better chance fighting it out on their own. Let’s be completely honest.” He watched her try to corral them into line, “No one really expected all of us to make it back alive. If Emma….if Emma was to pick between getting Henry out and safe, don’t you think she’d take it?” Charming slammed his fist down on the table.

“Stop it! We don’t leave any body behind, not them, not Rumplestiltskin, not even you Regina. Hook, do you think there is any chance Neal might have gone to your ship?” He scrapped the metal across the wood, back and forth til it made a groove in.

“It’s possible that Neal might have gone there. Can’t say for certain.” What was Charming playing at? He was clearly starting down the wrong end of the poison. Snow White and Regina glared at each other to make a move.

“Right, Mate. Can you get to your ship, fix it up, and keep it away from Pan? That way we’ll get off the island and have a chance?” His ship was on the other side of the island. It would take most of the night to get there.

“And what about your end, _mate_?” Snow sighed and held onto his husbands shoulders, missing his flinch, when the noises rocketed through the hut. Hook didn’t think Charming would last more than two days. If he was right about Emma, he didn’t envy who would have to tell her she missed her father’s death.

“They’ve got more lost children. That’s how they always act when more orphans come to the island.” Tinkerbell slid the shutters closed and pressed herself lower to the floor if possible. Regina shook her head.

“I can’t believe it but I agree with the idiot. Hook get to your ship and keep it safe. We’ll be enough to get Henry there safely in the morning.” It was an uneasy truce much like the entire endeavor had been. He wondered what Swan would have said about this all.

“Great. I look forward to going through Neverland at night, alone, while Pan and his Lost Boys have new blood. Not to mention the Dark One is still unaccounted for.” He was going to do it; Henry might have been fine but there were more matters to settle before they could get off this damned place.

“Rumplestiltskin said he wasn’t going to hurt you,” Snow made a face at him as he lowered himself down into the night.

“Firstly,” he gestured with his hook towards himself, “there are plenty of things that could be done to me that won’t _hurt._ I’ve not a doubt Rumplestiltskin knows that too. Secondly,” he pointed between the Queen and Snow, “Neverland has been doing wonder for your temperaments, hasn’t it.”

Snow and Regina scoffed, glared, and said nothing else.

He was about to walk alone through blasted Neverland and the canteen he had was not nearly as full as it should be.

...

 

Baelfire looked around them with a frown on his face. He had been to Neverland before, but Pan hadn’t been so kind to the second time they met up. The girl with them was very strange, too.  Other than a few questions she kept mostly to herself and kept up with their pace around the island. There were a few bruises around her arms that her shirt couldn’t hide.

 

"This is Neverland. I guess you were taken from one of the other worlds too." Pan wasn’t saying much but kept leading them ahead to the camp the Lost Boys called home. Bae wanted to run back to his cave and see if he could salvage something out of there as to why he was so confused. This reeked of the dark magic his papa threw around all too easily.

 

"There is no such thing as Neverland." Pan stopped and twitched a minute before rounding on them, grinning wide. There was something menacing in his eye. Bae stepped in front of the girl that had a knife in her belt, swimming in clothes too darn large for her.

 

"Listen to us. You're magic, Emma and a lost boy just like the rest of us on the island." She frowned and still looked pretty- Pan was right. Whether she knew it or not she had the same kind of feeling that some of the people from the Enchanted Forest gave off.

 

"I wasn’t lost until I go here. I don’t even know how I got in the water. The last thing I remember was the concert in Richie’s basement." Bae sighed when Felix came to the edge of where they were and stopped at them. He looked hungry. Pan linked his arm around the girl-that was new- and grinned to her scowl.

 

"Runaways count, Lost Girl. You’ll get along here fine won’t she, Bae." They walked a bit more til they found the circle around a large camp fire. Some of the boys were already beating their sticks and drums to their own beat and jumping around, clocks flapping as they went. A couple of them had animal masks on their face as they tumbled around. 

 

"You brought us here to play the pipes, Pan?" Emma laughed and he asked what was so funny. The girl elbowed Pan lightly.

 

"If this really is Peter Pan and Neverland the movies got it fucking wrong." He thought he knew what a movie was- maybe the Darlings had one the short time that he was there? but just sighed and sat down on the benches around the fire. The smaller lost boys stuck to the bushes while the bigger ones jumped around in fake fights. Pan set down next to them. Emma's hair looked even brighter near the fire.

 

"Actually, I need your help. The lost boys are always glad to have more company but we've lost one of our own today. A boy named henry got taken away by the parents that gave him away and now want him back. It's too late for him though." The dancing and music was starting to distract himself but Emma still seemed as clear as day.

 

"Why does this kid matter to me. Or to Baelfire for that matter. I mean, you call yourselves the Lost Boys and I get runaways and orphans sticking together," she was playing with the bracelet on her wrist made of a weak material and garish colors, “but how are we supposed to help you,”. For the first time in Neverland Bae was happy he had someone on his side. From what he could tell Emma was more than a little vicious but hadn’t set out to be very mean, so far.

 

“You don’t know the half of it. If someone like Pan can’t find somebody that just means there is someone even stronger protecting them,” He kept his hand on Emma’s knee since it started fidgeting with the music. He would admit that it was hard not diving into it with everyone else. Neverland and its Lost Boys might not have been home, but Bae _knew_ these boys.

 

"Because the kids adopted mother is with them and she's a student of the Dark One. You let that kid go with them and he's going to be in the same position as you were. Loved, but in a cage. No one close to them." Hhe sat there, stunned. Something must have happened to why he was so confused about time. His father had any students....that he knew about. Pan then started to play the pipes that he still from time to time. Emma nudged his arm-

 

"You getting up, Baelfire?" Felix stood around with a space cloak in his hand always looming around. Pan spent the time playing music and looking directly at him.

 

"We're lost on an island you don’t believe in and you want to dance"  He wanted to say something about enemies being able to pick her out in a moment but stopped. That was the voice of his papa, not him trying to warn Emma.

 

"This isn’t even the most dangerous place I’ve been. Not even anything to drink here." He had the gut feeling that she was telling the truth. She smiled and Felix through the cloak around her. In a minute she was gone underneath it then, at the other edge of the fire flailing around like it was the best thing she could have done in her life. The smile made the pudge left on her cheeks stand out and be rosy from the heat and glow. It looked like she traded just one concert for the other.

 

"Who's Emma." Pan slide closer and stopped playing to throw an arm around his shoulders.

 

"Thought you'd like her most Bae. She's an orphan as much as you were. And more than that she's magic. All we need to do is to get her to believe a little more." Bae glared at him.

 

"I hate magic." The boy next to him smiled even wider.

 

"Then you'd better try to protect her from it. The dark one is on the island too. Wonder what old Rumplestiltskin would  do with kid that has that despite." Pan slide away to join in the dancing. Once he got there the music went louder still. A few of the younger boys joined in now, not as afraid of Emma as they had been. A few of the other tackled into her; she hit them back.

 

Bae quietly got up and walked away from them to find out what was going on himself. None of the lost boys on watch said anything, further into the trees until only Pan’s form and the brightness of Emma's hair stood out from the crowd.  Felix stopped short and nodded to him with a cruel smile.

 

On the island Pan would always be able to find him. He got the point.

 

In the dark it was easier to get lost and to find his papa on the island. At night some of the lost boys used to wish that their parents would come for them- some he guessed like Emma, weren’t even going to give them a chance. Down by a great rock was his father both the same and different from before. He looked human but was the dark one still and talking to a woman n blue.

 

They were talking about him trying not to kill the boy, Henry.

...

 

Regina blinked her eyes open when the second spear started shattering at the window. Everyone scrambled up from their positions in the early morning light. He had fallen asleep sometime between Charming’s snore and Henry’s restlessness. Her son was still pretty pale.

 

"Get up!" Henry was up first and looked outside the damaged window before Snow, thank god for some sense, pulled him away from it and threw her quiver over her shoulder. There was a crowd of Lost Boys down there and Pan standing at the center of it.

 

“Get ourselves down so they don’t burn down the hut?” Snow was uncomfortably close to her but the situation called for it. Tinkerbell had taken her place in guarding Henry, even as he looked at her untrustworthily when he asked who she was.

 

“Can you and the other lovefool cut through to left flank?” Without another word the two of them left through the trap door, just in time for Henry to speak up. Tinkerbell was quietly explaining who she was when Regina realized what she had forgotten. Henry would have wanted his book and she’d left it in Storybrook.

 

“Mom...” She wasn’t happy about any of this. He was still too dark in the eyes for someone to be putting up arguments.

 

“Henry, I’m not about to let them die out there but what we all need you to do is stay inside. We might even be able to find something about Emma, but we can’t do that unless you listen,”  Tink got out of the way when Henry moved closer to her and the window, which she put a quick stop to. Really, Regina thought, she was taking far too much from her mother even if the situation was calling for it. The chair that was haphazardly put together flew forward and grated onto his knees and forced him down. He didn’t say anything except make a face and struggles.

 

“You’ve been trying so hard to do the right thing,” He was going to say more, she realized, until her felt her glare. The former Fairy offered no guidance in the situation. Her hand was on Henry’s shoulder and Regina was trying really hard not to see it as a threat.

 

“This isn’t about the right thing. This is about keeping you safe. Henry, you will stay inside.” She was always going to be the villain. It suited her.

 

Regina closed her eyes and appeared out in the field near Tink’s house where Pan had been. Snow’s arrow shot just a centimeter away from her face.

 

“Watch it!” Three boys were on the ground with arrows. Snow whipped around and nearly tried it again,

 

“How nice of you to join us, Regina! Pan’s went with two others towards Henry!” Charming was doing a lot slower and was out of breath already. The raccoon faced one was seconds from blasting Snow with a club.

 

“Are you all _sleeping_ or something?” Regina knocked him back enough for Snow to put the arrow through his chest. It was time enough and the path three of them took through the weeds was clear enough. She could see Pan’s shadow approach the window from the back side when her sight went dizzy for a minute. The two accompanying Pan were in front of her: the one called Felix and another brat with a hood.

 

“Leave.” It was easy enough to send him flying through the weeds and hopefully off some ledge. There wasn’t a need to restrain her heart pumping anger at these monsters for taking her son and attacking her.

 

“Not until you leave the kid alone,” Regina paused and looked at the brat crouched low- a familiar voice and knife.

 

“No.” Rumpelstiltskin had warned them enough the island would play tricks on them. Rolling forward she summoned a ball of fire to follow through the path and would have hit, had the kid not ducked under her arm and drag the knife thinly across her neck.

 

Even knowing that anger fueling anything wasn’t good, Regina grabbed the kids by the neck and held him close enough to whisper the last threat he would ever hear, until she noticed how female the body was underneath her. The urge to boil a body alive dropped out of her when Regina ripped the tattered hood away and saw Emma Swan’s face snarling at her.

 

“The hell are you doing, Swan?!” The girl bit her arm hard enough to draw blood and shook her off. She hissed but got a clearer look at the wo- the _girl_ in front of her bursting with barely withheld magical intent.

 

Emma still had the fierce look in her eyes, but the body was that of a just barely teen girl, all knobby knees and gangly limbs. There was baggy denim and an undershirt that looked like it belonged to a boy and had seen better days.

 

“You. You’re Henry’s step mom Queen Regina, right?” She nodded and looked at the situation. This right here is everything she wanted from Emma since she walked into town. Nothing. No ties to Henry, no curse to break, nothing to mean at all. Regina didn’t understand why it felt like such an incredible loss.

 

Regina stood up straighter and smiled, “Yes, Miss Swan. I am the Evil Queen. Stand down before we do something we’ll both regret.”  Like normal Swan looked like she was about to lunge for her throat when Snow White’s scream broke the sound of fighting.

 

…

“Is that Emma over there? No, it can’t be.” Tink knew she was mostly talking to herself since the boy was looking through the windows at the fights. Snow and Charming were fighting off the horde of lost boys down below, with the occasional help from herself. Charming was flagging down worse than he should by this point. Even the most untrained person would still be able to stand against these fellows.

“Henry, can you tell me if this is your mom or…” She looked to the side and saw that the room was empty and the way to her starry ledged wide open for Henry and Pan to reach.

“Shit.” Not for the first time she was glad she had learned how to scramble around without wings and got to the ledge in time to stop Henry from doing something stupidly brave for them all.

“Henry!” She got closer but couldn’t reach him. Pan’s shadow was grabbing her down to the room again, dragging her front side against the tree bark. The shadow held her down by the mouth and she could only hear what was going on upstairs.

“You can’t just do this to people it’s wrong! Change them back!” Henry was all of a frantic little boy- what was he seeing that she hadn’t? A light step step of feet and Peter Pan was closer to them still.

“I told you I would have the heart of the truest believer. So I did you a favor. Now you can stay here and have Neal and Emma with you. “ Tink saw Henry’s still attached shadow shaking his head.

“Not like this. There isn’t even a kind of bad with how wrong this is! You wonder why magic is going away forever; it’s because people like you are so, so greedy and _terrible_ that it just changes you until you can’t go back!” The poor boy was shaking now. Exactly the kind of kid Blue would have had the fairies comfort in the Enchanted Forest.

She thrashed around the shadow until she threw it off for half a second more. It was timely set by Snow White wailing outside of her window.  In her quick scramble up she managed to lay a finger on Henry’s foot.

Tink felt a jolt go through her. Like magic. In a blink Pan’s shadow and Pan himself were expelled out of her house leaving a fine trail of golden dust behind that was swiftly fading back into the floor boards. The magic feeling left her, too.

“Tinkerbell?” She stood up to see him. He looked more tired than before and more than a little red faced.

“Yes.”

“Can we go see Mary Margaret and David?” Ah, the scream from before was gone now and replaced by an audible sobbing. Some of the lost boys had told her that they could hear crying in the forest. She hoped it was only that.

She kept two steps behind Henry too terrified to get closer. He obviously wasn’t ready to talk about what Pan might have said or did to him. Frankly she wanted some distance from him anyway if Magic was going around in the air again. Outside they first saw Regina hiding her face behind her hand looking anything but pleased.

Actually, Tinkerbell thought, the fact that Snow is clearly in misery and she’s not delighted is rather impressive.

“Mary Margaret?” She shook her head and looked up to Regina already over to usher the boy away.  He jumped out of her way. Tink held him still and felt none of the magic go through her again.

“Henry, Snow and Charming need a minute.”

“What’s wrong?” He looked desperate for any kind of good news. Regina seemed to collapse into herself.

“The arrows some of the lost boys used were poisoned. Charming was hit and it’s taking effect now.” There was no cure for the deadly nightshade the boys used. More than one of them had come to her hut when they made a mistake to see if she could fix it. Maybe if she were still a fairy, but that wasn’t going to happen.

“Can’t true loves kiss do anything for them? Can _you_?” The Queen went down to one knee and looked Henry in the eye.

“It’s not magic, just a regular poison that I can’t fix. This isn’t magic true love can break. And…Henry we need to talk about Emma and Neal.” Her voice was gentler than Tinkerbell had ever heard it. Even when she had talked about Daniel there was always the layer of antagonism towards everyone around her. The kid’s face went kind of blank.

“I know. Pan turned them into Lost Boys.” Tink bit her lip. That was Emma she saw fighting with Regina earlier, then. His mother smoothed over his hair and kept her hand there.

“We need you to go inside again. This isn’t a punishment, but could you get the bed ready for Charming? We’ll be in in a few minutes.” He nodded and took himself away from them, back into the hut sedately. The others were talking in low voices with Snow still tearing up.

“Does she knew about Emma yet? You’ve been surprisingly good about this all.” There it was. All that anger and hate that Regina put away from the kid was back with burning eyes.

“I don’t have any time to live up to your expectations, fairy. You can be surprised all you want but Henry is my son and I’m trying to do what’s best. And right now he needs to be needed. He runs away to Pan in the forest to avoid watching his family crumble? We’ll never get him back. Now, go get something to help.” Tinkerbell glowered at the Queen. Something would simply never change.


	2. Chapter 2

Henry woke up from a gentle tapping on the window and tried to be as quiet as he could. Pan was back, alone this time. Given what happened the last time his family interfered he tried to take this one alone.

 

"What do you want. I already said that I'm not going to help you," The other boy seemed mostly unconcerned.

 

"You’ll be helpful sooner or later. Right now for instance you could be sitting by a campfire with your dad, and even your grandfather. I'm not trying to be your enemy, Henry. Neverland to give so many good things for you and your family." He got comfortable in the window still as they looked over everyone. Charming had been put in Tinkerbell's bed and snow was laying in front of it sat up, eyes all puffy and red. Tinkerbell was passed out in the chair from an exhaustion she couldn’t figure out. His mom slept unpeacefully over the trapdoor.

 

They were all hurt so much by keeping him safe.

 

"Every time they meet you they get hurt." Henry felt pan's arm stretch around him  and tilt his head towards the water where hook's ship is.

 

"I've no quarrel with Rumplestiltskin, one of the few who don't" he gave henry a deep loook, " and I took care of Bae. Even let him go when asked. Emma's a lost girl and she belongs here too. You could stay here with both of them. I heard about what the evil queen did to snow's family. DO you really want to rob them of the chance to have another kid to love and raise?"

 

Henry had heard his mother talk like this before. It was when she wanted him to be a good little boy and do exactly what she had asked even if it was something wrong. With a twist in his stomach he thought about how his mother had trated graham like that too.

 

"You said you don't want to be my enemy, right? Then I should be able to come and go as I please," Pan nodded, tilting his head side to side as if he were considering that in their negotiations.

 

"On the island of course,"

 

"Of course. I'm going to leave my family a note and I want to be back by morning. Can you take me to go see Baelfire tonight?"  His mom and Tinkerbell had told them that trying to get Neal and Emma to believe that they were already grown up wouldn’t break the curse. The choices were pan lifting the spell, true love's kiss, or them wanting to grow up.

 

Pan gave his a devious grinned prodded him in the ribs until he flinched back, "You're one off already! Sneaking off at night. Exactly like Emma did." Henry knew he needed to see Baelfire. Emma still thought she was lost and alone, but Bae knew his family and that things could be changed. If he could just convince him that true love was out there in the forest he'd be able to save them.

 

Henry finished writing the note and left it over his mom's jacket where they would have an easy time finding it. He looked around his family one more time and stopped at David. His grandpa was dying because of him.

 

"C'mon Pan, only until morning," He climbed out of the window with the practice that he had, touching softly at the ground, and going back into the strange forests of Neverland.

…

 

Snow heard the window shutter closed with years of practice of being on the run and then twenty-eight years of teaching small mischievous children- of which Henry was one.

 

“Henry.” She bolted up and frantically looked around when she couldn’t see her grandson. There was note.

 

“Regina, He’s gone!” She knew she was screaming loud enough to wake everyone else up. The other were waking up and getting to her by the time she had read the note, and it was torn out of her hands by Regina. Even Charming was hobbling his way over even though she pushed him back into bed.

 

“I knew we should have left the instant we had him! Now he’s back on the island with Pan!” It wasn’t proverbial flames what shot out of Regina’s hand a set the page on fire. Tinkerbell tittered over the ashes,

 

“And you still have no exit plan. You _can’t leave_.” Tink looked out the window and shook her head, “Neverland barely travels right. He could be anywhere on the island by now.” Snow had never seen a fairy so passive before. In all of her travels in the Enchanted Forest there was still more kindness to be found than in Neverland.

 

“Besides we’re not leaving Emma, Neal, _or_ Rumpelstiltskin behind here. We’re better than that.” As always, Regina tried getting the last word in.

 

“No we’re not. Half these problems are because of you,” Charming stayed quiet in his seat but frowned not saying anything.

“How could you even say that? We don’t want Henry hurt any more than you do.” She’d never thought Regina would accuse her or hurting her own grandson. Charming might have been hurt but they could still get everyone safe and home soon enough to fix everything.

 

“The whole damn reason we’re still stuck is that your daughter is a lost girl now and Henry’s trying to find her. The dunderhead over there can’t even leave his hed, so what help are you?” They were too close now nearly breathing in the same air. Regina had a way of making her the worst person.

 

“The only reason my daughter grew up alone and fighting for love was because of you and your curse.” Charming was trying to stop her while Tinkerbell offered nothing of help to either of them. She looked angry for some reason and bite her lip from saying anything towards them. Her relationship with Regina was never one about restraint.

 

“I’ll tell you what Snow, I didn’t leave my only kid in a tree because a little fairy told me it was a good idea.” Regina whispered in her ear and gave her the cruelest smile. “You did that all on your own.”

 

She was stunned. There was a hot feeling going up her face that was probably an anger blush and a stomach drop that felt like it would never stop.

 

“Regina, that’s enough. We were counseled by the Blue Fairy that it was the only way to save all of us, and that included saving you. If it makes you feel better we were lied to.” Charming finally spoke putting his head in his hands and scratching at his head. The Queen gave another horrible smile to them all.

 

“And this shocks you? Even Tinkerbell there didn’t have a chance against the Blue Fairy. None of these problems have to do with me. You ruined Emma well enough on your own.” Snow felt herself shake ready to grab Regina by the throat and- and she didn’t know what she would do. Forgiveness didn’t help her, prison didn’t help.

 

“Stop it. Henry’s still out there. He said him and Pan used the last of the Pixie Dust to fly; Tink, can you guys manage to gather a bit of the dust and see if we can’t use it to get out?”  The ex-fairy nodded before rifling through her cabinets for a glass vial.

 

“Do you propose we carry you up the Cliffside to get this dust, you’re highness?” She was on a roll tonight.

 

“No. I’m lame enough as it is and someone has to stay behind if Henry comes back in the morning. If none of are here he might try and go out again.” Snow spent the few waking hours since this morning trying to ignore all the lies that had happened. Charming was dying, Henry was gone, and Emma was slipping further and further out of her reach.

 

“That sounds good. There is a louder horn by the stove. If he comes feel free to use it. The Lost Boys already no everything so now isn’t exactly the prime time for discretion. I’d stay off your side if I were you.” Tinkerbell guided them down and left one last flask of water for Charming. Everything seemed so much colder in the middle of the night no matter how bright the moon had shown.

 

But she had Regina. She _always_ had Regina, for better or worse.

 

...

The strangest part about Neverland, Baelfire thought as he prepared the same dinner he had for years, was that it felt like you never had left. Felix wasn’t changed a bit except perhaps being even more callous about life.

 

"You should be more careful, Baelfire, or else the little ones will bite your fingers off." Out of all the older kids there, it was only him and Felix that stayed at camp with some of the little ones that were still afraid of the island. The boys had run along to hunt and play in the forest with Emma joining them. 

 

"You mean treating them kindly? Not everyone is bad as you seem to think they are," Bae knew all sorts of people who did bad and good things. He kept to the fire and tried to figure out what had brought him back to this island again, or why pan had suddenly decided they needed a lost GIRL in their midst. 

 

"Baelfire! Just the lost boy we wanted to see!" Pen broke through the bushes as Felix stole his skewer of food. The boy Henry was behind them looking around for everyone with some apprehension.

 

"The boys are out playing right now. If you want we could join them before going back in the morning?" Pan offered and took the seat next to Felix full of mischief and promise.

 

"No thanks, its Baelfire I wanted to talk to- alone," That was certainly interesting. the only people that wanted to talk to him were people that wanted something from his father, or to curse his father it went either way really. Pan nodded and gathered Felix up.

 

"It’s about time the babies learned how to hunt, everyone get up!" He roused the sleeping children awake and slowly took them away from camp.

 

"I haven't got any reason to talk to Rumpelstiltskin you know. Or any magic myself." Baelfire got that right out of the way before Henry would ask him for any favors he couldn’t give. He sympathized with the boy. Growing up under magic was a twisted way to see the world.

 

"True love's magic, so I'd bet you have that," the boy Henry dropped so casually in their laps poking at the fire.

 

"Then I most certainly don’t want help. I'd rather not have magic in my life anymore than you'd do. Pan told us about your mother, the evil queen," The boy seemed to deflate a little and stare at the fire.

 

"I think that Emma is here to help you with that. I think she's your true love. If pan needs the heart of the truest believer, why wouldn’t he need true love as well? And...I know my mother love me. She just doesn’t know how to show it sometimes. I can only hope she gets better about it." He said the last bits rushed to ignore the fact that is mother had hurt him. Bae had used that tone all the time when he tried to distance himself from Rumpelstiltskin. 

 

"That doesn’t say why I need magic. It’s dangerous, Henry, and if Emma has magic then she's dangerous too.” The other kid didn’t look too convinced and smiled at him.

 

“Don’t you like stories about true love, adventures, pirates and princesses?” Baelfire cringed and poked his own stick at the logs.

 

“Can’t really say I like pirates either.” Henry gave out a deep sigh and his shoulder’s slumped. It reminded him a bit when his papa used to find no reason to argue anymore. It was a defeated look and it crushed him to let the boy stay like that especially on this island, “but maybe I can still help you. What is it that you need magic for?”

 

Henry tightened his lips and searched his face for an answer. It was the kind of searching look when someone had to convince you of something you didn’t want to do. If he was a part of Pan’s agenda then he more of less likely had one of his own. Finally he seemed to find the right words.

 

“While trying to save me, my grandpa got his by the nightshade arrows. I need to find a way to save him.” Something in Bae’s gut told him that Henry was telling at least part of the truth. He stood up and wiped off his pants.

 

“No one can cure nightshade but I know a couple of tricks to keep it from spreading. That’s all I can do for you.” The sun was starting to come up as Henry grinned and got some sprint in his step.

 

“That’s perfect! You might be able to do a lot more than you think,” were whispered words from Pan and so many other people.

 

“And I think I might be able to change your mind about the true love thing on the way; have you ever heard about Frederick?” Henry’s tale began as they rummaged through the bushes and the other lost boys began to head back to the camp to sleep the morning away. Creatures of the night.

 

…

 

Killian was already awake when he heard the first sounds of people on his ship. The bunkers beneath were the safest place to sleep without people watching their every move, and the sun was already cresting over the Neverland waters. A safe time to come out and continuing one handedly repairing an entire ship.

 

But first was to deal with his intruder. He couldn’t see the figure as he crept up the stairs. Killian nearly whacked the young girl over the head before she saw the shock of blonde hair pop up from underneath the stairwell. The figure was all wrong in some places, but if he had to guess what had happened, this Emma Swan hadn’t yet had a child.

 

"Emma Swan," It was her, of course, since she simply walked up to him and gave him a confused look.

 

"You're the second person to call me Swan, but yeah my name is Emma. This your ship?" She had made herself quite at home with the ship. The clothes were fairly normal for her world but they looked slightly muckraked like shed been going through the woods all night. The Lost Boys were dangerous in a way that drinking and starting a bar brawl wasn’t. A man would live with consequences; a boy would eat you alive.

 

“It is. You look like you’ve been running around with the lost boys. I’m not going to say they’re too rough for you but they are.” He wasn’t as adept at magic as some of his fellows but he’d spent time enough with Cora to see how a curse was acting. Pan, most likely, had made it so Emma the Savior wasn’t in the game.

 

The look in her eyes was still just as lost.

 

"Let’s say I know you a bit. And you should know the island isn’t a place for little girls to be running around. Have you seen anyone else on Neverland?" He was hoping she didn’t say Pan, or worse Felix. Pan would at least use her while Felix would be more than willing to hurt anyone to get their needs. His mate wouldn’t exactly like him leaving his daughter to the wilds of Neverland even if it meant keeping her on the ship.

 

"A few'" she was playing around with the broken wood work from the storm tip toeing around the ropes that laid on the ground, "trying to help that kid get away from the Evil Queen," he could hear the disbelief in her voice and it brought a grin to his cheeks without stopping. She might have been of the enchanted forest but she's never simply assume magic, even at this age when she seemed only a little less jaded but maybe a bit too old for her skin.

 

"Does it sail?" she gestured to the entire ship.

 

"Aye, it does. But I won’t be putting her out to sea until I can get more of her fixed," it must have been the first time she saw his hook because she gasped and zeroed in on it.

 

"Captain Hook? This place really goes all out." The disbelief was amazing. He felt something pull at his arm and there she was feeling the hook.

 

“You think this place is all a show.” From what young Henry had told them in their limited interactions everything in their world was a story to the others. It would explain how Emma was able to recognize him in the first place. “You don’t wish it were something real then?” She started withdrawing into herself the way only a child could when they still wanted company.

 

“No one’s a kid forever,” Too true.

 

“I’m sure you’ll grow up into a strong woman, who would rather say no to everything, happiness or otherwise just to make sure you’re safe. Maybe I’m wrong and you can take everything the island throws at you but you won’t be any happier for it. Surviving isn’t always about happiness, is it?” It was the plague of the Lost Boys. Survival never meant happiness- it didn’t even mean survival. Swan was looking at him with those big blue eyes already with shadows in them.

 

"Huh, you know me but don’t think I can know you?" the teenager shrugged and stared intently at where his hand had been.

 

"Why aren’t you with your parents, Emma?" That was what set off the fire in her eyes again.

 

"I don’t have any fucking parents. It’s Neverland after all isn’t it?" The more he looked at her the more she became the same Emma he knew before, maybe a little less smart and not grown enough to cover wounds from hunters. He couldn’t let her stay on the island.

 

"That’s good then. I've plenty openings on the ship; starting with repair. Help me fix her up and I'll let you sail her," she'd done it already several times, probably more if he considered after she left him in that city's janitorial closet. She frowned and looked back at the island.

 

"I think Pan wanted us to head back to camp once the sun came up."

 

"Why didn’t you?" She shrugged. "I saw the ship. Thought it would be interesting to see what was on it," She still had a heart then, if she wanted to avoid pan's camp at all costs. Or in the worst case scenario she felt so abandoned that not even Neverland would feel like home.

 

“Well if you change your mind I’ll be here, dear.” Killian grinned at her and started to see the pieces of Emma Swan come together- sometime between now and her heart getting broken she’d had shared it with others if that blush meant anything.

 

“Careful now! Wouldn’t want Pan to worry about you.” He walked over to the shore’s side and watched her work her way down the rungs and back to the beach, waving by to him and heading back into the forest.

 

Killian scratched at the wood using his hook and stared at Neverland. If his hunches were correct about lost boys, Pan, and Emma he’d be getting another visit from her before long and more likely with company. He had some traps to set aboard the Jolly Roger.

 

…

 

“As much as I don’t want to say it we should figure out the priorities of everything before we find the fairy dust,” They were away from the weeds near her house and closer to the gravelly land near the Cliffside. Tinkerbell thought she could feel pixie dust close and knew they were on the right trail.

 

“Regarding what exactly?” Regina paused and let her magic sweep over the land and stopped for a bit. She’d been right about magic being closer.

 

“Pixie Dust can only have so much use, won’t it? If we’re lucky with how much we get we’ll either be able to get home, cure Emma and Neal, or cure David.” Snow glared at the wall before taking the pick axe she’d brought with her. Three strikes against the wall and a bit of rock crumbled, soft glitter leaking out of the rocks.

 

Snow wiped sweat away from her forehead and smiled at them, “All fairy dust likes to stay hidden. The dwarves showed me how to get some in a pinch.” Tinkerbell was finding herself more impressed with Snow White and sneered over at Regina.

 

“It’s nice to see that _some_ people appreciated their friends and people who have tried to help them.”  Regina stares at her while Snow goes on,

 

“There is no prioritizing. We’re using the pixie dust to get all of us and Henry out of here.” She didn’t even sound sad as she said it. Just brisk and without room for argument. Her family was falling to pieces and little Snow White was still trying to get Regina happy again.

 

“It’s okay to be selfish, Snow. Regina destroys everything she touches. We might be able to save David as well.” The two of them stop working at the pixie dust for a minute and look at her like she’s grown three heads.

 

“Besides, Henry was never the name of her son any way. It’s not the name I saw, Rola-“ She didn’t get to finish what she was saying when Snow dropped her pick.

 

“Henry is a good name. He was a good man that treated everyone, even myself, kindly despite what happened between Regina and me. I’m not sure how you two know each other, but Henry is fine just the way he is.  Regina on the other hand was not so kind and went immediately to threats. For a few minutes Tinkerbell honestly thought Regina had put that behind her.

 

“Want more than you’re wings ripped off if you say anything else.” She could be petty, too. Not like she had fairy conduct to uphold anymore.

 

“Go ahead. You ruined Snow’s life, my life and respect-maybe it’s a good thing you were too cowardly to see your true love. Poor man shouldn’t have to suffer anymore with you than he already did.” The cleaving of the cliffside stopped, but Snow White wasn’t looking at her, she was looking at her step-mother, patches of red on her pale cheeks.

 

“Regina, tell me you didn’t.” There was a plea going on there that she didn’t have enough context to understand. Regina was glaring at the both of them with her shoulders hunched as if she was going to send them flying into the night. There was nothing left of a young lady trapped in a cage. No, this was all of Regina’s own making.

 

“I don’t have to tell you anything, Snow. Look at where prophecies have gotten you! At this very moment I have a better chance at being Emma’s true love than Baelfire does. You all have this twisted fantasy that happiness is possible to attain. It’s not.” Sometimes in her loneliest nights, Tink thought the Blue Fairy was right about her. She put her foot in her mouth more times than she could count and had probably just incited another fight between the two of them.

 

“You have love out there and you’re ignoring it. God no wonder the curse was so easy for you. It’s a lot harder to try and hold onto your heart instead of locking it away inside a _box_.” Snow’s face went blank and she took a step back. Whatever she was going to say next got cut off with extreme efforts.

 

Regina screamed and the next thing Tinkerbell saw was Snow White being held against the rocks with magic choking the breath out of her.

 

…

 

It wasn’t the bravest thing he’d done, but Rumplestiltskin eventually found his way from his seclusion with Belle over what should be done. The first task was to find the others and offer his service. If he was going to die for the boy, then the least he could do was make sure they knew an opportunity to take instead of trying to save him. Regina would be all to ready to leave him.

 

Taking steps was strange to him when he walked easily to David’s bedside. He was very much used to having his cane whenever he was around David Nolan- but perhaps he was also used to the young prince not being steps away from death.

 

“Nightshade I take it.” Rumpelstiltskin sat next to him and David chuckled.

 

“Snow…wasn’t exactly happy that I hadn’t told her. Her, Regina, and Tinkerbell are out in the island looking for pixie dust. Sit down and rest. ” His eyebrows rose even as he vanished some of the sweat and grime off of David. It made him look a little more alive.

 

“That’s not a combination I’ve made myself ready for.” The news also meant that Henry would be down two Grandfathers before everything was done with. There were worse sacrifices to make.

 

“They’re not ready for it either. I have to ask- have you heard about Emma and Baelfire?” David groaned as he sat up and drew from the flask of water. A cold pitch of nerves went through his stomach.

 

“Baelfire?”

 

“Is alive, last we heard. Pan turned him and Emma into children again and they’re running around with the Lost Boys…with Henry. I don’t know if this is a disaster or a stroke of luck.” The man laughed even as he started going pale again, pacing back and forth in the shack that was apparently Tinkerbell’s.

 

“Baelfire would stick with Henry. They’ve had similar upbringings.” He gestured to himself and the manic lizard skin that would every so often gleam in his more insane moments of dark magic. Whatever Charming was going to say next was drowned out by the voices of said boys coming closer to the hut,

 

“No matter how happy it ended Frederick and Abigail never would have been apart if her father hadn’t dabbled in magic,” it was the same voice he’d imagined in his sleeps for hundreds of years.

 

“You’re missing the point. True love never stops and magic helped them all out, too. Shh, David might be sleeping.” The two boys popped their heads up. He couldn’t move, afraid any quick movements might scare off his son.

 

“Or David could be completely awake and worried his mind off. Henry don’t ever run off like that,” Like a flash Charming was across the floor and pulling Henry up in a hug. Few steps behind was Baelfire, peaking up and looking around the room. They made eye contact and he nearly fell back. It was the same desperate look his son had given him that night years ago.

 

If David hadn’t warned him, he didn’t think he would ever be ready for this moment to come again. Henry did indeed bring his son back to him time and time again.

 

“You.”

 

“Me.” He didn’t want to jeopardize anything for Henry and David but the urge to scoop Baelfire away was overwhelming. In a near whisper he heard Henry tell David that he didn’t think that Rumplestiltskin would be here.

 

“Is the curse gone?” Maybe that’s why only the likes of Snow’s family where the heroes. To look at someone with so much hope in his eyes and have no choice but to crush it all in the name of being a better person was unbearable. Baelfire and Neal had made it clear only the truth would be trusted. He conjured a wisp of magic and cleaned off their clothes.

 

“Afraid not, son. But I’m trying.” It was gone.

 

“Baelfire is going to slow down David’s poison long enough for us to get back to Storybrook.” Twice, in the same hour. It’ll be a new record. Charming stepped up to bat,

 

“Henry, we all came here to save you. I…” David frowned and pulled a handful of things out of his pocket, among them a broken golf leaf piece.

 

“Hmm, a part of my favorite candlestick,” He looked at it, checking it over in his fingertips, before throwing it at him. Before Emma had broken the curse David Nolan had dropped off antique candlestick for repair. “A deal, Gold. Get Henry off the island.” A price then. He nodded and cast a sleeping spell on David before bringing him back to the bed.

 

The price for his services had always ranged towards the extravagant but between Snow and Chaming it had always been less was more.

 

“You’re not trying! Papa you just took gold from a dying man and you expect me to think you’re changing?” Henry was the only one willing to say anything.

 

“Your dad’s helped us a lot, actually. He’s not as bad as you think he is Neal.” The conversation was a lost cause and Baelfire was already running out the door. Henry looked the most disappointed to see him go.

 

“I’m sorry Mr. Gold. I didn’t know you were here and that Neal would see.” Rumplestiltskin shook his head before sitting down in the chair to face his grandson.

 

“Henry, I want you to lay down with David. I can’t cure him from the nightshade, but I can make his rest easier. We’ll figure something out when your family comes back.” Henry looked sullen and tight lipped.

 

“Neal and Emma won’t be here.” He laughed and smoothed the boy’s hair down.

 

“If they’re anywhere near as stubborn as they were as adults they’ll be fine and find a way out of trouble themselves. We just need to keep you safe from Pan.”

 

There was the gold candlestick piece in his pockets that warmed when he looked over at Charming. It was a sad affair that there was no candlestick to blow for David’s cure. He’d rather hope they didn’t have to light anymore in mourning.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I think Charming is also Lumiere.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for being gone so long. The holiday season kinda widdles hours away from me. Just a few things of note: this is obviously a 3A AU with a lot of canon ignored, like Pan's family. This also takes a bit off from Wonderland.

She couldn’t have been walking through the weird trees for longer than fifteen minutes when someone had jumped out behind her.

 

“There you are. We were starting to get worried." Emma gasped and arranged the fist she was making downward and away from the boy that had popped around behind the three. Pan looked his same mix of serious and angry that threw her off quite a bit. He had told them all about the magic of the island but she didn’t really believe it...but then again she had just met a Captain Hook, even if he was nothing like the rest of the story. He was a lot better looking, she though..

 

"Sorry, the games just seemed kind of stupid to me." She shrugged. She still wasn’t clear how exactly they got here but now Pan was deeply frowning at her.

 

"You don’t believe." It was maybe meant as a question but she didn’t see it like that.

 

"Not, really no." He was walking her, she realized, once they had past the same tree. He didn’t want her away from him but not to make any distance better. She'd had boys- and men if she wanted to be honest with herself- treat her like this before they had made it to the nearest bathroom together. Pan made her feel dirty about it.

 

"When all the other lost children made it to Neverland they were all so happy with the magic. And here you are and you want none of it," The Island was maybe the opposite of what he had said. When Emma had spoken to the other lost boys they told her about everything they wanted: games all the time, junk food, sweets. She thought they were all pretty stupid.

 

She was doing that already and it wasn’t bringing her any happiness.

 

“What you’re doing is really creepy, Pan. What is it that you want from the island. Give me an example.” There were shadows all over the place now and it didn’t look like what she had gotten used to. A part of her kinda remembered this. That _Neverland_ had been all dark the first time she saw it …even if none of the boys mentioned nightfall, ever.

 

Pan urged her on with a look. What Emma really wanted was her family or at least something to make her feel like home.   

 

There was a tingle down her arm and something was in her grasp before she realized she was holding it. It felt weird, like it was numbing her hand.

 

Looking closer at it and it was some kind of pocket watch, old fashioned with a swan embossed on the outside. The metal didn’t feel weak but looked like the most untarnished gold she had ever seen. Emma discretely snapped it open while Pan was sending them around another rock.

It wasn’t working. The second hand kept ticking like it wanted to move forward, but the hour and minute was staying at 8:15. He must have saw it glitter in her hand.

 

"You did it." Her foster families, well they didn’t hate her or anything, but the watch was much nicer than anything she had ever had or wanted. It didn't feel right of her to use it or even touch it. Emma thought it was almost, classy, in its reverence. Something that she would have to grow to be worthy to wear.

 

"Did...what?" With how many heebies jeebies Pan had given her she should have been paying more attention to him, but kept her watch hidden from his eyes. This at least brought some kind of merriment to him like he was proven right somehow.

 

"That’s magic. You asked the island for what it wanted and it answered you with magic. It’s why Henry is such a special boy too," He was leaning close to her, arm almost thrown around his shoulder.  

 

The island was still dark around her, and quieter too. Emma didn’t think the place had _given_ her anything. The further she walked with Pan the more it felt like something didn’t want her here at all.

 

Emma felt dizzy. If the magic was real, what else was? That woman throwing the fire at her was _conjuring_ the fire. Everything she thought he knew about Neverland seemed…wrong. A lot darker.

 

This didn’t seem like a place for dreams.

 

"If you're putting me and Henry like that, maybe I don’t want to help you." It was worse than she thought. Guys wanting to mess around with her was okay but with the little kid too? Or worse, she thought as when she pocketed the watch anyway, he didn’t know what he wanted to do with them. There was a pirate that might be able to answer a couple of things.

 

Pan grabbed her by the back of her tank top, "Swan I can’t let you leave now. You’re a Lost Girl." She wanted to scream but that would only make it worse. Instead she fell back against him till they toppled on the ground and she grabbed his leg between her and twisted it. The boy underneath her screamed as she scrambled up and made it out of the clearing. A faint golden glow was around her but faded not long before the pirate ship made it to midday view, still broken.

 

The man's hook gleamed on board with Neverland’s dark forest behind her.

 

...

 

Regina had enough with the two of them ganging up on her. She was willing to admit that Tinkerbell would probably not forgive her but to agree with Snow?

 

If no one had ever believed her on how absolutely horrible the princess was, she brought up how she had murdered Regina’s own mother (A voice that sounded like Hopper's that she tried to drown more and more) it was the fairy. And now she was falling for the same devious tricks with her own little barbs that had been settling in Regina’s stomach like a bitter poison.

 

She was supposed to have a son with her true love and it wasn’t Henry. The fairy didn’t even know who Henry was- he was no Roland. There was no idea what or when the pixie had seen all the those years ago and being Rumpelstiltskin’s apprentice drilled enough sense about the future in her, the more she choked back a sob walking through Neverland.

 

Henry might not be in her life after all this. Neverland might kill him. She could share her boy with Emma- hell she could even managed to deal with Snow everyday but to have Henry completely gone? Snow and Charming didn’t know what robbery of the heart was. To never have something fill that void ever again.

 

Snow had lost her mother, and had lost her father. She’d gotten that werewolf, those dwarves, her own true damn love. After she lost Daniel she'd found people too. She'd found Rumpelstiltskin, she'd found Jefferson.

 

“You’ll learn what a heart really is, Snow White.”

 

Regina watched the breath leave Snow's face and was enraged enough to ignore the gasps of pleading and Tinkerbell's yelling when it all went boomed.

 

The cliffside has exploded into pieces and the whimsy of magic. Once the pebbles stopped showing down at her she started to see what was going on.

 

“No!” Snow was scrambling on the ground. Worse yet was Tinkerbell’s freighted face and utterances of apologies. Dread hit the bottom of her stomach when she realized what Snow was scampering for. The pixie dust that had been falling to the silted ground was gone in one burst of _Tinkerbell’s_ magic.

 

“What have you done you useless excuse for a dragonfly?” For the first time since they had seen each other again, Regina saw stone cold fear in the fairy’s eyes even as she backed away closer to the forest.

 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. Magic, and I hadn’t controlled it in ages- I’m sorry.” Each apology was as rushed as the last when Snow white stood up looking as defeated as she’d ever been.

 

“It’s all gone. There’s no more pixie dust. You used it all to stop Regina.” Years, even months ago, she would have loved to see the princess so hollow and emotionless with defeat. Now the feeling didn’t bring her any sort of joy since they were both loosing.

 

“You’re a catastrophe! It’s no wonder you ended up in Neverland.” Regina growled at the fairy approaching closer without flames in her hands. Oh, no. What she was going to do to this wingless _thing_ was far worse than a little fire.

 

“I…” she had the gall to look down at Snow, who was still down on the ground cutting her fingers from gripping the sharp rocks so much.

 

“Just _go,_ Tinkerbell.” Regina supposed she had it all now. All of Snow’s happiness was gone. Her entire family was dead or dying with no hope, no light towards anything.

 

The victory felt hollow.

 

…

 

Baelfire stuttered to a stop in front of the lost Boys camp where Pan was sitting with the sleeping boys. He didn’t look like he was in any sort of good humor.

 

"See your father then, Bae? You don’t look so good." It lacked a lot of the heat that he had heard from Pan and then he realized what it was- disappointment. Something had underwhelmed Pan and he was a bit sad by it.

 

"And you sound like you broke a toy you didn’t know you wanted." It was a cheap thing to say but it was all he could do. He'd spent most of the morning arguing with Henry about the nature of love and magic as if the boy hadn’t been a victim of it as well. Henry was peculiar.

 

Pan walked over towards him like one of the many creatures of Neverland that could very easily kill.  

 

"I'm going to tell you the truth Baelfire and I want you to listen very, very carefully. The reason you're here? You came here to save Henry, your son. You see he missed his parents so much that I decided to help him. I gave him you and Emma to be children forever." He didn’t want to believe it but Pan must have been telling the truth. It would explain some of the weirder things that Henry was telling him. He hated magic.

 

"What could you possibly want from all this!" Pan smirked and walked over to Bae, standing close enough to lean down and whisper into his ear.

 

"You just left your son with the Dark One. You're just like your father." A flash of red went by his eyes and the next thing he knew he was swinging his fist at Pan’s face. The other one was pulling back any punches either until they were scuffling on the floor waking up a few other of the lost boys. Some of the older ones grabbed him by the shoulders and kept him away from Pan. Bae could feel his eye starting to swell. From what he could see of Pan was that his nose and lip was bleeding out a little bit.

 

"Felt good right?" Bea didn’t want to think about what was going on since he was torn so many ways. What he knew was true was that his father was willing to use people- but to also protect him. Pan kidnapped children and...used them for lack of a better term. If his father and his new apprentice were here, where did that leave them? Unless Henry was actually his son...

 

And Emma, closed off, magic filled Emma was the true love that Henry kept talking about like a desperate soul trying to get his dad to believe in something better than himself. His stomach was hurting more than Pan's punches and kicks did. He could imagine the grin on the shadow’s face as he looked up and through the blood marks.

 

"You're getting it now. You're always going to be a lost boy and so is your son. You're as bad as your own father. Let him go boys. Baelfire can't go anywhere else." The other let go of his arms and headed back to their bunks. 

 

“I’m nothing like my papa.” The one without his shadow looked at him curiously.

 

“You actually believe that, don’t you? Rumpelstiltskin has someone he loves in another world-her name is Belle. She was attacked and you know what he did? He went to look for you and chose not to hurt the man who did it. Emma helped him along the way.” Pan walked closer to Bae the more he talked until their blood was dripping on the same grounds.

 

“Rumpelstiltskin is a coward and a vicious man; but it’s itty bitty Baelfire that’s always running away. You can hit me all you want because at the end of the day the only person who’ll miss you is your father. Your own son even stays by Rumpelstiltskin more than he does you.” All the other lost boys were hiding away now trying to make as little noise as possible.

 

“My last word of advice: never grow up, Bae, or you’ll have to see yourself as others see you.” Baelfire used to have dreams, that he’s get his father’s skin and laugh at the pain of others. He’d been told that people needed his help: Emma, Henry, and David.

 

Baelfire curled into himself and dug into his cloak for warmth that the fire wasn’t going to give.

 

...

 

Well, he supposed being half right was worth something, Killian thought when he heard the steps of someone else climbing aboard his ship again with a crown of bright golden hair appearing.

 

"Here to have second thoughts about joining my crew, love?" She looked a little more tussled and dirty than she had after leaving.

 

"Maybe. Let’s say I believe you, Captain Hook," he smiled at the same inflection of her voice. Swan was definitely in there, "and I know I believe you about Pan," and that explained stuff some more, "then you also know what’s going on here." She was fully on deck now in a position that wanted him to answer her clear.

 

"Aye, I do. Can't tell you though." She wasn’t too pleased about that. The scowl must have been something she acquired later since a simple eye roll seemed to suffice towards him. She kept on anyway.

 

"Baelfire said that all magic is bad, but Pan said that I was magic. I even got this out of no where," He watched her pull out the pocket watch with an indiscernible engraving on it before it got put away again. He consoled himself that the lack of trust was because pirates loved treasure and it was best to keep it hidden from them. Yeah, right.

 

"Baelfire has his own history with magic, love, that you shouldn’t compare yourself too. Magic can do just as much damage as it can do good- it just depends on the person doing it like yourself for example." Killian walked over to her until they were closer, her nearly grown height at just around his cheek bones. He could see the blush going across her cheeks.

 

"Didn’t get along with Pan. He uses magic too and you saw how many people it can hurt as a joke," he leaned over and whispered closer to her ear. "and here you are just starting to do magic and you've got gold trinkets falling into your hand. It’s the person you can choose to be that makes everything worthwhile." Killian was playing a very dangerous game with how exactly he was approaching the very, very young Emma Swan. If either her father or herself could see him now, well he'd be doing more than just walking the plank to somewhere.

 

He smirked as she steps backwards, hitting the starboard of the ship, gripping on the wood and giving an uncharacteristic gulp in her throat.

 

"You don’t feel very good to me," He smirked again and caressed her cheek with his hook. 

 

"I'm not,"

 

“…You’re lying.” It was one way to put it. Her face was starting to recede from it’s blush now and she wasn’t craning to look up at him anymore. Swan moved closer to him to turn around and go to the damage.

 

Emma closed her eyes and a slight pulse of magic came from her. Like it was being un-splintered, the damage on the ship was quickly undone. The wood could be heard cracking itself together again, each a piece from enchanted trees that were no longer in existence. Seems that Swan could give life to almost anything.

 

“First mate?” Killian grinned and back away from her towards the mast, shrugging towards the entirety of the ship.

 

“Can’t. Mate position’s already been filled. Disrespectful to replace them like that.” The girl snorted and flung herself around the ship, idling herself with fixing little things around the ship. The rusted parts started gleaming with no sheen that hadn’t been seen since his brother christened the whole thing on its maiden voyage.

 

Killian looked over at the horizon waiting for any sign of the rest of them. He couldn’t exactly leave Neverland with only Emma transformed, but he couldn’t keep them there if there was no hope in sight either. He wasn’t quiet lying about him being a bad person. It was no secret why he was on this entire expedition to begin with.

 

“Any advice Swan?”

 

“Huh?” She was a very distracted person. It seemed barely anything kept her attention for more than a few minutes. Still like treasure though, he thought watching her touch the watch in her pocket every few minutes almost as if she didn’t believe it would still be there.

 

…

 

There trek back to the shack was silent, both of them too angry, too tired to say much to each other. Snow went up first not caring too much if Regina decided to do something wicked to her.

 

“David?” he groaned and tried to roll over in the bed only to flinch backwards. He was in worse shape but a lot cleaner than how she’d left him. Snow chocked back a sob, thinking about what he’d said after Archie’s funeral. He didn’t want to be buried away from his home- he wouldn’t even be buried near his loved ones.

 

“No Tinkerbell? I guess you didn’t luck out this time.” He sounded horrible. Regina was all to kind enough to explain why. He paused and made noises at all the right spots like he was leaning on every word, beads of sweat pooling around his temples.

 

“There have to be other ways to go about this. We can’t just give up.” David grunted and asked Snow for some water from outside.

 

“Please, some nice cold water. I promise I’ll keep til you get back.” He watched his wife nod, almost falling into herself before getting up straighter and back out of the hut.

 

“Something wrong with seeing Snow’s misery, Charming? I forget sometimes that you’re not just one of her accessories.” David shook his head and stilled for a second to make sure Regina was in focus for what he was about to say.

 

“I know you’re not Rumpelstiltskin, but would you be willing to make a deal Regina?” The look on her face was priceless. The anger melted away and was something he’d never quiet encountered with her before.

 

“I can’t cure you we’ve already been over this-“

 

“No. I…I made a deal with Gold to get Henry back to Storybrooke safely. Don’t ask about the price. He’s going to make good on his word. What I need from you is to pretend for maybe a month. Maybe a season.”

 

“Pretend to do what exactly.” She was sitting in the wood chair like it was her throne. He’d never really cared for what ever pretense was needed, but even Snow fell into the habits of royalty sometimes.

 

“She needs a friend. You were her friend and mother for years without her knowing any better.” It was going to come out wrong but Regina must have ignored the inflections of it when she leaned forward and almost teetered out of her seat.

 

“You want me, the one who lives to torment you, to lie to the woman you love with all your heart. Maybe you _do_ like Snow’s misery.” It sounded like she was coming back but Charming had to make sure all of his bases were covered by this.

 

“You might be surprised with what you find out about yourself when you pretend to be someone else for a while.” David grinned even as the muscles tugged him something fierce, “I pretend to be a pretty good prince for just being a shepherd, don’t I?”

 

Regina didn’t give him an answer except for how dark her contemplative eyes looked going between himself and Snow White. It was clear Snow was trying to pretend that there wasn’t someone else in the room when Regina made the first move.

 

Her lips were pursed like she’d sucked on a lemon.

 

“Snow, there is something we should consider.” It was now or never if Regina was going to listen to his deathbed wishes.

 

“We should take out Charming’s heart.”

 

…

 

Henry knew the way around the island and knew that he was taking the longest road he possibly could back to his family- or what was left of it. He’d wondered what could have driven his mom to do such desperate things to get Snow and Emma away from him, until now. He kinda thought that he’d be willing to use magic if it would make everyone better.

 

But it wouldn’t. Magic didn’t fix this problem and it didn’t cause it. If he hadn’t done so many stupid things his family would still be alive and happy and safe.

 

“Those are some heavy thoughts for such a little boy.” The voices over his head was nasally and sounded wet. Tinkerbell sat on one of the rocks, red faced and tears everywhere.

 

“Why are you so upset.” Damn. Just being around them all hurt right now. He had a real fairy into front of him and he couldn’t even care about it at all. She started laughing and it sounded human and nothing like bells.

 

“We found some pixie dust and could have cured David. Then I ruined it and now it’s all gone. Did Regina tell you why I’m rolling around in Neverland instead of being with the other fairies?” He didn’t care. He wanted to shove her down the rock and ask her why she would mess something like that up- someone’s _life_ was at stake.

 

“The Blue Fairy took my wings because I was a horrible fairy- not like Maleficent horrible. I was _incompetent_ , like your mother would say.”

 

“She’d say a lot more things than that.” He could only imagine how Mary Margaret must feel. Something cold went through him again when he thought about his grandmother- she lost her kid and was about to lose her husband, but here he was feeling sorry for himself beside a rock.

 

“Maybe it’s a good thing you don’t have your wings anymore. You can be a person and live a life without trying to help people.”

 

“You say help but I hear the word ruin in there. I’m not stupid, boy.” Henry shrugged and stuffed his hands in his pockets- the left one was just a hole now. His mom would probably be a little upset about that.

 

“I think that’s quite enough out of you, Tinkerbell.” The trees rustled around and Henry watched Rumpelstiltskin come out of the foliage with a frown on his face. Tinkerbell moved a little closer.

 

“You’re not welcome here Dark One.”

 

“Relax fairy I’m going to bring the boy no harm.” The older man shook his hand at them before stopping a few paces away. Being on the island long enough to know that something was wrong with Mr. Gold- namely that his shadow was gone.

 

This might have been what Pan meant by the Dark One being as evil, or worse, than he was. Pan…did a lot of things that Henry didn’t like. He’d seen a lot of people get hurts for reasons, even his mom. But once she was caught she owned up to what she had done.

 

Pan laughed when the little lost boys got to hurt to “play” any more.

 

“It’s okay. He’s my grandpa.” Another thing he’d messed up- Baelfire would never want to see his father. Neal had _told_ him about the nightmares and now he brought Baelfire there. Everything he touched got ruined.

 

“How long have you been around her Henry?” He didn’t get why Mr. Gold was looking between them with more of a frown than ever.

 

“A few times. She’s not with Pan.”

 

“I know that but…nothing?” Henry felt his stomach curl a little bit more. He didn’t know what it was but somehow he disappointed Gold, too.

 

“Come with me. There are a few things I need to talk to you about.” Tinkerbell got up and threw him behind her again.

 

“I’m not letting a boy go with you, Rumpelstiltskin.” His face ticked into something frightening.

 

“Firstly, I hate fairies and I have no ode to pay you. You’ve done nothing but add to the misery of people. Second, I’m curious as to _how_ you would intend to stop me even if I had any ill will towards my grandson.” Rumpelstiltskin walked closer to them and grabbed Henry’s arm. The grip was tight enough that it felt like it would bruise.

 

“Wait, don’t!” Henry saw the magic before Tinkerbell did. With a flick of his wrist Rumpelstiltskin threw Tinkerbell back into the rocks so violently that she wasn’t getting up.

 

“You can’t see- you can’t even begin to _understand_ why Pan wants this boy. Go make yourself useful and find a few stars.” The fog went around them and Henry found himself in a dark cave.

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

“Where are we?” The cave looked like it had been lived in, but since no time moved on Neverland whoever made it could have been here anytime without people knowing. For all he knew this is where Emma was running around- he looked for her with the other Lost Boys, but they told him she went off on her own- at least Pan hadn’t done too much to change her.

Rumpelstiltskin sat on one of the rocks, playing with the small trinkets everywhere.

“Like you, and like Miss Swan, I suppose, Bae didn’t enjoy his time in Pan’s group of miscreants. This was his home.” Like he usually sounded when he talked about his son Mr. Gold sounded sad. Henry thought it was a bit easy to think of his Mom as the Evil Queen, but Gold and Rumpelstiltskin always seemed…different.

“Are we waiting for him?”

“I’m doing this for you, Henry, not for Baelfire. You’re perceptive; more than either of your mothers would like, so how about you tell me a little bit about yourself.” It shocked Henry for a minute, that he was no longer looking at all the decorations around the place(Emma had an empty house, but Baelfire’s looked like a sad try).

“I’m, err. I’m Henry Mills. Close to being twelve and I guess…that’s about it.” Whenever Rumpelstiltskin frowned at him it always made Henry feel like he was failing something important.

“I notice you’re not trying to be a hero anymore. Taking up Villainy like your Grandpa and Regina?” He started shaking his head and putting out a denial when he laughed and waved it aside.

“Never, Henry, don’t worry. But there are so many parts of you that you’re just not seeing. You’ve felt sad since coming to Neverland, haven’t you.” It wasn’t a question and Henry knew better than to answer. He did feel sad, and useless. Like nothing was ever going to get better. Rumpelstiltskin smoothed his finger on the edge of the table and gave a quick whistle.

“While you were trying to be a hero and get your family back you were literally _burned_ for your troubles. Then you went to help me be reunited with my only son- and brought Miss Swan’s heartache to the surface once more just after it had started to heal. You dragged Bae back to see me even knowing he wouldn’t want to. Care to tell me what that makes you.”

 _This_ is why Mary Margaret and his mom both agreed that he shouldn’t be around Mr. Gold. Everything that was swimming around in his stomach made him feel like he wanted to puke everything up and that he’d still be sick even after it was finished. The residual burns felt hot even if he knew they weren’t.

“It makes me a mess up.” The words barely came out of his mouth properly with how dry it was. His tongue stuck to his teeth.

It didn’t last long since a shadow had floated into the room and peered at them with glowing eyes.

“Henry, it makes you the bravest boy anyone could hope to know.” In the shadow’s hand was Rumpelstiltskin dagger.

…

“You want to _what_?” Snow got out of her seat to look at Regina quick enough to make her head spin. She hadn’t been this alarmed- this _horrified_ by Regina in years.

“Snow, please.” Charming’s hand was wriggling in her too tight grip. Regina looked on and folded her hands over her knees.

“It’s…I’m not trying to hurt you this time. “ Snow couldn’t describe the look on her Step Mother’s face when she looked at Charming but kept her silence so she would talk on. It was always easier to let Regina speak her mind than to drag it out of her.

“When we were in Storybrook Graham had mentioned that he felt numb without his heart. I can’t stop the poison but it might make him hurt less. Maybe buy him some times, I don’t know.” The clipped way she spoke said enough about how sure she felt about all of it.

“David, would you want to give it a try?” They’d talked long and often before the curse what would happen if either of them had died- both had seen their parents lonely after their spouses’ deaths but never really wanting to move on. He was going someplace she couldn’t follow. His hand started squeezing hers shaking with the effort.

“I’ve always trusted my heart in your hands. Now we’ll just be a little more literal.” Regina crept up beside him and plunged her hand into his chest.

Charming gasped, but once the last beat of his heart inside his body happened, he went grey, not pale. The colors of life left his face but left nothing of pain. His body stayed paused in between heartbeats.

“…it’s heavier than most hearts would be, Charming. Anything you’re not sharing with us?”

It might be heavy, Snow thought, but it looked bright and alive in Regina’s hand.

…

“I’m not brave.” It was true. He was scared so often recently that some mornings he woke up afraid of what might happen that day. He knew his mom was the Evil Queen, but he never thought he’d see _her_. All those times Emma told him to think about Operation Cobra he didn’t.

“Don’t tell David, but out of everyone in this family you remind me of myself and Ms. Blanchard the most.” Rumpelstiltskin sat down in a wicker chair as his shadow flew around the room, dagger glinting every time it caught the light.

“No! You don’t get it! I know that magic comes with a price. I _know that_. I read all the stories and that even if you’re trying your best it still has a price. I got Emma involved with this and got the curse broken. _Then_ I had my mom dealing with everything by herself, and then people came into Storybrook. I’m here, and David’s dying. Mary Margaret lost her daughter again- and mom!” Henry felt himself start to cry and choke in front of the man.

“There are so many more stories than the ones shown in your book. The author was kind enough to leave most of mine out of there. Many of them I’m sure you would be delighted to hear. I imagine you would have been found of Leopold but that’s another day of agony and woe.”

“What do you know about this dagger.” Rumpelstiltskin continued the conversation as if everything were okay.

“It can control you.” His voice was nasally but his hysterics were calming down. Rumpelstiltskin raised an eyebrow.

“No, Henry. It controls the Dark One. Some thirty four years ago I could have had it all. Belle’s kiss was breaking the entire Dark One’s spell and I pushed her away so that I could find my son. That makes me a bad person.” Where was he trying to go with this? The sun was starting to come up and he knew Pan would come around looking for him soon.

“No…you just wanted to see your family again.”

“It makes me a bad person because I _knew_ that my undoing would come from a boy that would help me find my son. In all the worlds, with all of my magic, my fate was sealed the moment you were born.” The sinking feeling hit his stomach again when he realized the shadow was moving out of the sunlight and into the darkest parts of the cave- without the dagger in its hand.

It was being cradled in Rumpelstiltskin palm gently twisting across loose threads on his clothes.

…

The camp fire had long since died when the morning started in Neverland. Baelfire had watched the whole thing go from a flame, to a smolder, to smoke, and just a still pile of wood. The entire island was quiet- except for the sounds of crying.

“Hello?” If it were one of the Lost Boys he’d see what he could do about that. He couldn’t remember how he got off the island. He couldn’t leave anywhere.

“Please, please leave me alone.” It was a girl’s voice but it wasn’t Emma’s. He doubted she’d be crying for help anyway. She wouldn’t have been in Pan’s camp at all if she were the teary sort, which made this girl all the more distressing.

Could it be a trick from his Papa?

Around a few bushes and into a rigging, Baelfire looked up into the cage and saw Wendy Darling.

“B-baelfire? Oh, dear. Baelfire!” He’d left them so Pan wouldn’t take her- _why was she here?!_ She looked thin and pale like she was starving with little cuts and scrapes all over her, most likely what could be reached by the spears of Lost Boys.

“Wendy! Hold on, I’m going to get you down.” Without anyone to help him getting the cage down the rope was a disaster. His arms shook from the effort of keeping her steady until the cage came crashing down and broke into several pieces. A high pitched whine could be heard from inside.

He moved the pieces aside and when Wendy emerged she was holding her wrist which already looked a little swollen. The sun was nearly up then and she looked even worse from out of the shadows. Dirty and illkept.

“I’m sorry, I should have-“

“You wonderful person. Bae, I’m so happy you came to help me. It’s been so many _years_ and they just kept bothering me and it’s all my fault.” Wendy was clutching at him like she was afraid he wasn’t real. He held her closer to support her head.

Time didn’t pass on Neverland but he’d been gone long enough to have a son. Poor Wendy.

“Nothing’s your fault, Wendy, I promise it’s not your fault.” He mumbled into her hair. It wasn’t her fault after all. It was his.

“He wanted to find that boy, Henry, because of me. Because I don’t believe anymore.” There was a rustling in the trees still some distance away and they didn’t have much time left.

  
“C’mon we have to hide.” Wendy shook her head against his chest, still not letting go of the hug.”

“They won’t care. They can stab me easier now. That poor boy.” It was rough of him but Bae pushed her away by the shoulders. Wendy’s eyes looked so very, very old.

“I need you to tell me everything.”

“Someone came to Neverland and left. Ever since then the boys and everything on the island started to realize that they might grow up someday and it scared Peter so much. Everything started falling apart and he started looking for people who believed in him, in Neverland.”

There were only two people he’d known that had come to Neverland. Captain Hook and his Papa but his Papa had said that Pan was already here poaching children.

“I stopped. I stopped believing.” A couple of the smaller Lost Boys came up to them and sat around. They weren’t as vicious as they could be. Pan hadn’t enough time to make them into little monsters. It was like a bizarre encounter with story time.

“Peter, he kept going to grab children because this Henry is the one who believes the most. His plan was to trick Henry into staying here forever so Neverland and _he_ would stay the same forever. He doesn’t care about all the Lost Boys at all, Baelfire! You have to do something. He’s not going to stop.” Wendy was asking him to for help and he still couldn’t fix this problem. There was no where to turn on this island!

“Would it be so bad? Staying forever. Henry. Henry doesn’t seem to have good parents, either. Maybe this is for the best.” It left a bad taste in his mouth but Wendy didn’t know about all the boys. Some were poached by Pan, sure, but some of them were lost and unwanted children like him. Like Emma, a magical girl that didn’t _play_ with the Lost Boys.

“You don’t understand! He took my brothers, John and Michael. When I wasn’t enough and couldn’t believe anymore Pan threw them out. They’re all alone somewhere. He told me that I’d better believe in seeing them again or I never would.” It was all too much for Wendy. She slid down to her knees, dress around her ankles, and started sobbing. The boys around her, small enough to be toddlers, just pressed against her and started looking at him with wide eyes.

There was an easy way out of these problems. Wendy was counting on him, Henry too. When he first came to Neverland he did it to protect them. They needed him to stop running away and face to the only person who would even want to help them.

“I need to talk to my Papa.” It didn’t feel like a lead weight in his stomach even admitting that. Then, a lifetime came around and Neal found himself on the ground staring up at the children through the last bits of the curse leaving.

“…Baelfire?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s me Wendy. I need to make this right.” Hopefully, Neal thought, he would be able to do enough for Henry and Emma.

…

The dagger vanished out of Rumpelstiltskin’s hand and into Henry’s, who nearly dropped it out of shock.

“The point you’re missing isn’t that you’ve made choices that have hurt people. You make them expecting the _best_ out of the people around you and nothing else. We’ve made petty choices and brought more damage around us.” Rumpelstiltskin got up then and shook his clawed fingers to Henry’s nose.

“This dagger is my power and my freedom. I’m giving it to _you_ because you’ll do what’s best with it.” He was smiling now wide and with fanged teeth showing. Henry was still getting used to Mr. Gold’s skin being actual gold scale.

“You said that I would be why you died. Why would you do this.” It was more responsibility than the book ever was and look how he messed that up.

“You might doubt yourself right now but no one believes in happy endings as much as you do. My heart is as dark as they come, much darker than even Regina’s or Cora’s. I believe in _you_ , Henry. You want us all to live happy ever after.”

It was amazing. He didn’t feel sick anymore and he wasn’t afraid.

“You know, getting here from Storybrook was a lot quicker than getting to Boston. I think we can make it back quicker, too.” Henry smiled and tucked the dagger into his pants.

“If you believe.”

…

“Well , well, well if it isn’t Tinkerbell. You’re looking rough this morning. What’s a sad little fairy doing away from her house?” Tinkerbell looked up from the rubble at Pan. The little shit.

“Go away, Peter.” The smug boy sat down next to her and grinned.

“I don’t have to. Neverland’s fine and _you_ don’t have any magic. Henry doesn’t believe in you. Even if you wanted to you can’t fly home.” The indignity of it. He’d snatched her away not long after Blue took her wings.

“You still need a fairy even when everyone believes. You think I’m going to help you after all these years?” He jumped around and laughed a bit, the sadistic volume echoing around the rocks.

“What’s a fairy anyway? Emma will do fine.” She’d heard something else, too, before she felt anything. The bells of laughter that weren’t Peter’s and the rush came back like it had the other day and when she’s exploded the pixie dust.

She felt _magic_. Someone believed in her again.

They were faint and some sad but she heard the quiet little laughs of the children in Neverland. One in particular was louder than the rest, a boom, boom, boom. The promise of light and love that practically shown through just waiting to be let out.

Henry’s heart had a steady beat of belief, but _Emma’s_ was kept inside far too long.

Tinkerbell closed her eyes and relished in the vertigo that threw her, she felt everything shrink on her. The glow of magic, she had wings again! Peter’s thunderous expression was worth the many years of waiting.

“Hey, Peter. I’m not a fairy. I’m a pixie. And you’re done for. It’s time we stopped being afraid of you.” There was a heart she needed to get to.

…

He was numbed but still exhausted so she wasn’t surprised when Charming fell back asleep not long after she’d removed his heart. It was beyond her to even consider what he’s asked her. Pretend to be Snow White’s friend? Even after all this

“After all this time it’s just the two of us left. No one else in this kingdom even knew your father. Knew my father, our mothers. We’ve become such a lonely family that the kingdom’s people wouldn’t even be able to identify us as linage.” Snow’s voice was distant and far away. It was disgusting how quickly they became used to the condition of this cabin. This whole adventure was a mess to begin with.

“I hope you’re not presuming to blame me for all of this.” There was always a fire inside her to snap at Snow, even now. “You’ve thrown you own share of stones, Snow. And most of the _hit_.”

“No. It’s all of us. If you had known it could be like this would you have cast the curse?” Snow still wasn’t looking at her and being particularly obtuse about things.

“Watching your husband die in a hovel in the ground? That _was_ my intention.” It was close but not really. David Nolan slept off most of the curse in a coma separated from Mary Margaret. It was good enough. The sun was beaming over them now making fun of their night out.

“Don’t pretend,” She jerked a little to Snow, did the girl know already?, when the clouded voice continued, “I remember being Mary Margaret for so many years. When little Henry came you had me hold him, had me watch him. We’ve done so much to each other.” Snow looked at her now with clarity and a commitment to her voice.

“When you felt like you won we had a relationship that sort of worked. If you knew this would you still try and cast the curse?” She played with Charming’s heart in between her hands (they didn’t want to set it down, just in case) and sighed.

“I don’t know what you want from me. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have Henry. We wouldn’t have Emma Swan. Knowing what _you_ know, would you trade her in for who she might have been?”

There was no answer from Snow White.

Black magic didn’t leave a lot of room for uncertainty. The lessons Rumpelstiltskin had taught her early on was that some things could never be taken back. Broken things can’t be magically fixed.

In hindsight, that chipped tea cup should have alarmed her.

“Is your true love in Storybrook?”

“No.” Snow nodded and held her husbands’ hand tighter. Regina was expecting some follow up to that loaded question but there was none.

“Why. Going to warn him off?” The dreamy sort of expression on her face was back, staring down at the bed.

“You’re not the only one who learned things, you know. True Love is forged just like anything else. Setting a dinner table doesn’t mean forever. Regina…if its real love, they’re not going to be afraid of you. Love means their strengths make you proud for them and their faults are-“

“Charming.” She couldn’t help it but cut in. Snow snorted but nodded yes.

“Their faults are charming, yes, not that Charming is a fault.”

Regina stared at the heart not able to look at them much longer. They were sickening.

“I’m not nice. But I wish I could prove to you that I never wanted this.” She gestured around them and noticed the glow on her hands.

“Regina! The pixie dust- you still had some on your hands!” Snow was right. It wasn’t her magic, it shouldn’t even be possible for her to be able to use such good magic without a tool, but it was happening. The veins with poison all over Charming faded and even with his heart out he looked better than he had since arriving in Neverland.

“You did it. You saved him, Regina. You saved him.” The rest of the babble was in decipherable while Snow sobbed into her husbands’ chest. “Quick, put his heart back in!”

It wasn’t that she was following Snow White’s orders- no- but it was an absurd curiosity as to why she could make light magic work strong enough to cure an incurable poison. She could have promised Henry the moon but it wouldn’t change what her magic and what she was.

“I didn’t doubt you for a second.” Charming was up and already attached to his wife’s lips.

“You two are disgusting. Have some decency.” The space they separated wasn’t decent but she supposed that’s all she could have asked for.

“How did you do it?” Moon eyed, the both of them. It was Snow that finally pointed towards her and her still glowing hands. The pixie dust was useless now but still glowing while it healed up all of Charming’s wounds.

“She did it with the pixie dust. We don’t know how it worked.” She rubbed some of the sandy excess off on her pants.

“It shouldn’t have worked. I didn’t even cast magic.” Charming paused and looked around the, looked at the bag on the floor they had taken from Baelfire’s cave.

“…Regina, what did you say exactly?” Neither of them seemed to know what Charming was thinking.

“I said that I didn’t want this to happen.”

“David, what do you think it means.” He grinned and sat up before pulling on his boots and filled with life again. It made her heart throb (Why didn’t it work for Daniel?).

“I’m guessing she also said the word ‘wish’. Do you remember when we watched all those movies with Henry? Neverland’s the second star to the right.” No. But the fools seemed to think that it was true.

“Regina wished upon a star.”

“No.” She dusted all of it off of her and got rid of the evidence. This was malarkey and she had more things to do like find Henry instead of watching after a now not-dying Charming.

“…makes no difference who you are.” Snow _had_ to start singing.

“I said no!”

…

Emma didn’t know what to do. There was nowhere to run on a ship but she didn’t want to be on that island either. After spending the night somehow fixing everything on the _Jolly Roger_ she felt...antsy. Like something else was supposed to happen about this magic- which still seemed kinda hoaxy. She’d had drugs before but this seemed like a much too prolonged side effect.

Hook was nice to look at, for a hallucination.

“If you’re really a pirate then you have rum.” For one thing Hook didn’t mind the fact that she stayed close around him. He smelled really nice and wasn’t as handsy as some people had been.

“I do, Lass.” He grinned and made an exaggerated motion of moving his arm from where it had been next to her and drinking from his flask. “Mmm. Breakfast.” He was close enough that she could smell it on his breath.

“It’s lunch.” He went to grab some to drink when he pulled it away from her. “What’s that for? I’m had alcohol before you know.” She’d had the hangovers to prove it.

“It’s sad, Swan, because I believe you. Unfortunately you’ll be staying dry on my ship. At least until you’re old enough.” They weren’t looking at the shoreline together anymore- he was looking down on her that made her feel like a bug under a glass. She’d been blushing enough this whole time but now he was making fun of her.

“I’m old enough for a lot of things.” Emma thought Hook wasn’t getting the point and held his good hand in hers and leaned in.

He leaned in closer to her, brushing some of her hair back behind her ear with his hook. The tip of it scraped at her scalp but didn’t hurt. She felt like her face was on fire when he finally started to speak.

“You’re really not. It doesn’t help anyway. When you drink and bed hop because you’re old enough doesn’t make it go away. It’s still an empty want. You can do better, Emma.” The blush went embarrassing. He didn’t know _her_ or just how many times she’d found out that it’s always lacking. Hook was right.

“But you _are_ better.” Emma leaned up and kissed him.

It didn’t even last long enough for her to get a real feel of it when he pushed her away and took a few steps back.

“And this is you lying to yourself. This isn’t better!” She was mad at herself and at him. The gold watch in his pocket was slimy from her sweaty hand holding it.

“You can’t tell me what’s better for myself!”

“I can when you’re too young to even understand!” Emma thought it was like a curtain raising up and going down. When she met him the teasing was easy and so was flirting. But it felt easy yelling at him too about things that weren’t even his fault.

“Then maybe I’m more grown up than you think!” There was a pulse, and she was back.

Emma blinked, once, twice and looked around the ship. She was an adult again. The past few days came rushing back to her in clarity (she was so close to saving Henry and missed it!). She did _magic_.

“Still think I’m better.” Still steps away on the deck was Hook, looking sad and defeated. She did that to him.

Her mouth was too dry to answer.


End file.
